God’s Design for Sexuality

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God's design for sexuality

God’s Design for Sexuality

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This ever updated page pulls together our most recent (and archival) library of content that focuses on God’s Design for Sexuality. Scripture, articles, podcasts, and videos that all focus on this wonderful truth.

We will share God’s heart for our sexuality, His original design, the theology and scripture behind it all, along with next steps for us all to be on the life-long journey of Sexual Integrity.

Below you will find excerpts that speak directly to the design God intended for us to experience as his image bearers around sexuality.

At the end of this page, you’ll find a list of books, videos, and other content we have on God’s Design for Sexuality.

What is God’s Design for Sexuality?

The core of God’s design for sexuality is love. Love is literally benevolence: willing (volence) the good (bene) of another. 

God is love, and out of His core character He wills the good of every single person. This is the opposite of lust, which is to use another person for our selfish gratification. 

His love includes safety. Not in the sense of avoiding risks, but in the sense of doing no harm. True love sometimes hurts (like the dentist, or like loving a prodigal child), but it never harms (abuse, ultimate bad, etc.). Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (1 Cor. 13:7)

The love of God respects boundaries, even those that say no to His love. Unlike those who have harmed and abused us, and those who have sought to force their bad wills upon us, God honors our boundaries. 

Love also delights. There is a kind of love that is passionate (Greek: Eros). It is not just sexual, but also includes a love of beauty and life. There is also a kind of love that is self-giving, like the love God has for us and was demonstrated by sacrificing His Son Jesus so that we can spend eternity with Him (Greek: Agape). Passionate love and self-giving love were never intended to be experienced apart from one another. When sin came into the world, passionate love and self-giving love became separated. So, instead of passionate love being married to self-giving love, we have ended up with a distortion of passionate love in our world.

Consider this: God—out of His extravagant love—is the one who created sex! He designed sex to be pleasurable, passionate, and procreative. Yet sex is just an icon. Out of his self-giving love, he passionately loves us more than any lover ever could, and in eternity, we will live in the bliss of loving Him back; fully known and fully loved. 

Ultimately, love is what distinguishes us as disciples of Jesus. You can read more here.

why did God create sex so powerful?

Sex was powerful before sin entered the picture. In fact, I dare say sex was more powerful then. The atomic power of sex is not something the evil one invented, not something he would ever even dream of. Sex is God’s invention and He loves what He has made.

What we object to most is not the power of sex, but the power of sin. Whether how we eat, drink, marry, parent, work, or play, sin hijacks the power of good and steers it destructively.

Sex is one of the most important areas of humanity Jesus came to “seek and to save” (Luke 19:10). He didn’t come to extinguish sexual desire. He didn’t come to pull the plug and shut the whole thing down. Sin has done that. Jesus came to plug it back in, to restore all the love and life and joy and glory and power that sex is meant to have.

So in whatever way, sex feels too powerful in your life, begin by bringing all your sexual addictions, fears, hurts, and sorrows—sins you’ve done and sins done to you—to Jesus. And keep bringing them. He has come not to condemn but to save. Trust Him to do so.

Read more here.

Sex, Desire, and Dignity

And so we do not look upon our bodies as foul, filthy things, but as bearers of God’s image. And we do not look upon sex or our sexual desires as shameful, dirty things. They are worth more than we have yet imagined. They speak the story in language that extends beyond words. They bear the image of God’s love to us in a profound way. Or, they were meant to. Christ came that they would again.

And so humbly, gratefully, and in awe, we walk with dignity, treating our bodies with honor. And so we look upon and treat others’ bodies—those of men and women—with humility, dignity and honor as well. This is worth living for, fighting for, and dying for. Christ did. His body naked, beaten and marred beyond description. Pierced and broken to rescue our bodies— including our sexuality—for God’s great love.

We weren’t just made to run away and cower from sexual sin. We weren’t just made for sexual sobriety or restrictive morality. We were made to reveal God’s self-sacrificing love through our bodies—yes, through our sexual bodies. Is it any wonder the enemy fights so hard against sexual purity? The real wonder is why on earth we wouldn’t fight more.

This is an excerpt from an article titled Created for More.

Scripture ON God’s Design for Sexuality

  • Genesis 1:27-28
  • Genesis 2:25
  • Song of Solomon 2:7
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4
  • Exodus 20:14
  • Matthew 19:4–6
  • Ephesians 5:31–32
  • 1 Corinthians 6:12–13
  • 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
  • Romans 12:1–2
  • Hebrews 13:4
  • 1 Corinthians 10:13

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